Cuba marks legacy of important revolutionary heroine on its centenary

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 30 (ACN) Miguel Diaz-Canel, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban communist party (PCC) and president of the country, evoked today on Twitter the legacy of the heroine of the Moncada, the Sierra Maestra and the clandestine struggle Haydee Santamaria, 100 years after her birth.

Casa de las Americas, cultural institution of which Haydee was founder, in a message on the same social network stressed that her thought can continue contributing to the ideology of emancipation, as well as to the struggles of Cuba and other peoples for all justice.

Haydee Santamaria Cuadrado was born on December 30, 1923, in the then province of Las Villas, and from very young she was linked to the revolutionary activity, sensitized to the serious social problems affecting the country.

She condemned the coup d'état of March 10, 1952 and, together with her brother Abel Santamaria and other revolutionaries, published the clandestine newspapers Son los Mismos and El Acusador.

On July 26, 1953, she participated in the assault on the Moncada Garrison, for which she was sentenced to prison along with Melba Hernandez.

After her release, she was a member of the National Directorate of the 26th of July Movement and supported the rebel troops, commanded by leader Fidel Castro Ruz, who fought for emancipation in the Sierra Maestra.

When the Revolution triumphed on January 1, 1959, she worked in the Ministry of Education and later founded Casa de las Americas, an institution she directed until her death on July 28, 1980.